Dick Spotswood: Is SMART on track toward a 'miracle' extension to Larkspur Landing?

PROSPECTS ARE BRIGHTENING that the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District will honor its promise to Marin voters by running trains all the way to Larkspur Landing.

After the ballot issue achieved a 70 percent super-majority, SMART's then-general manger Lillian Hames disclosed that sales tax projections were too high and construction estimates too low. To compensate for the funding shortfall, the line's terminals were cut back — in the south, from Larkspur to downtown San Rafael.

After that debacle confirmed that some objections raised by SMART's opponents were valid, Hames' tenure was short. She was replaced by Farhad Mansourian, a first-class construction engineer and Marin's former public works director.

If Mansourian can get SMART back on track and deliver the train to Larkspur, he'll be transit's miracle man.

SMART's board just took a key step toward that goal by applying for a $2.5 million federal grant for essential environmental review and detailed engineering work to complete the 2.2-mile San Rafael-Larkspur gap.

Since the right-of-way is mostly graded and the $25 million Cal Park Hill tunnel finished, the project is doable. One major dilemma is money needed by the city of San Rafael to complete Andersen Drive's safe passage across SMART's tracks.

In 1997, the Mission City promised to fund this multimillion-dollar crossing to gain state approval for building its Andersen extension. The city doesn't have the cash.

Why not use for Andersen Drive's crossing some of the $143 million now proposed to be squandered on the controversial Highway 101-Greenbrae-Corte Madera freeway scheme?

While they are at it, SMART should collaborate with Larkspur on its new SMART Station Area Plan. It suggests both new housing and, in the long term, running the train directly into the ferry terminal.

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LAST WEEK, I reported about the ongoing war between New York's Westchester County and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's centered on a voluntary compliance agreement that Westchester's prior and now-defeated county executive inked after HUD filed suit, claiming the county's zoning practices were racially discriminatory.

The column referenced concerns that Marin could be the "next Westchester" to face a similar "enforcement" action. Some claim that HUD's strategy is an attempt to effectively federalize local zoning to meet its social goals.

To understand the linkage, go back to Nov. 29, 2010. On that afternoon, Judy Arnold, in her capacity as president of Marin's Board of Supervisors, appeared at the IJ editorial board to first inform the paper that within 24 hours county supervisors intended to sign their own voluntary compliance agreement with HUD.

Like Westchester, the county is currently working with HUD to complete an "Analysis of Impediments" of those issues, including residential zoning that might obstruct HUD's demands that Marin and its 11 cities "affirmatively" pursue the agency's new and far more aggressive definition of "fair housing."

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley now shares his views on local politics twice weekly in the IJ. His email address is spotswood@comcast.net. Read his musings at http://blogs.marinij.com/spotswood/